The floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties met on the 19th to discuss introducing dual special counsels over the Unification Church gate and alleged primary bribery, but failed to reach an agreement.
Han Byung-do, the Democratic Party of Korea floor leader, and Song Eon-seog, the People Power Party floor leader, held a meeting that afternoon in the office of the National Assembly Steering Committee chair. The meeting lasted a little over 50 minutes.
Meeting with reporters immediately afterward, Floor Leader Song said, "Representative Jang Dong-hyeok is on the fifth day of a hunger strike, and the goal the opposition party leader is risking life and limb to win is to accept the dual special counsels," adding, "As considerable testimony and suspicions have emerged in both the Unification Church gate special counsel and the primary bribery special counsel, we must promptly sort this out through special counsels and lay bare the truth clearly before the public."
Song said, "The Democratic Party tries to water things down by tying a special counsel on Shincheonji to the Unification Church. If we must proceed, we proposed launching separate special counsels for the Unification Church and Shincheonji simultaneously, rather than bundling them together," adding, "If bundled together, there is concern the investigation could proceed in a particular direction, so the intent was for each special counsel to take responsibility and uncover the truth, but the Democratic Party says it is hard to accept this."
On the alleged primary bribery, Song said, "The Democratic Party's stance was essentially that it has no intention of accepting a special counsel because of the order to investigate by the joint police-prosecution task force," adding, "Even just looking at the process of questioning City Councilor Kim Kyung, there is suspicion this is an investigation that gives time for coordinating stories and concealing the truth by not questioning key suspects simultaneously. As they have forgotten the basics of investigation, we clearly conveyed that a special counsel is necessary."
By contrast, Floor Leader Han said, "The essence of this special counsel is to eradicate the problem of a specific religious force illegally and unfairly intervening in a party primary," adding, "To that end, we are saying let's address the Unification Church and Shincheonji at once, but the People Power Party is not accepting that."
Han said, "I believe the proposal to include Special Counsel Min Joong-ki in the Unification Church special counsel has a political intent." He added, "There was no progress because the People Power Party did not accept the argument for separate special counsels," but also said, "Talks have not completely broken down, and we will continue discussions if we get the chance."